Music is really all about experimentation and lots of trial and error. It's just mind-numbingly boring until you hit on something that works well.

Record covers helped me discover a lot of music that I wasn't aware of.

I studied German at school. I lived in Berlin for two years and had a German girlfriend for five years, so I don't find speaking German particularly difficult. Singing was slightly more difficult.

I didn't expect us to be around after 25 years.

I'm not particularly prolific.

It creates a conflict of interest - what songs would I use for me, and what would I use for the band.

I will be the focal point for however long I decide to play. Half of me likes that idea and half of me doesn't, but once the adrenaline kicks in, I'll probably really enjoy it.

Anything that I write comes from the soul.

I sit down and create atmospheres, start playing guitar or piano and just sing whatever comes out of my mouth.

I lead two totally separate lives. There are times when I have to slip into rock star mode.

The majority of the time I'm at home with my family, I play football three times a week.

I don't write poems and put them to music. Just let things flow.

I tend to like songs that are very emotional, that strike a chord with me emotionally.

There are definite reference points to older Depeche Mode records.

I like their darkness but I also like the pop-side of the Velvet Underground.

When people meet me I think they're surprised to find out I'm not always angst-ridden.

I wasn't ever a massive David Essex fan, but I liked a few of his tracks, and Stardust was one of them.

There haven't been many credible electronic covers records.

Once I'd chosen the songs, it seemed like it would just be a question then of recording them. But it's a case of trying to re-invent the songs; taking them in different directions.

Music is really all about experimentation and lots of trial and error. It's just mind-numbingly boring until you hit on something that works well.

I didn't write songs for a very long time.

I do a cover of a Velvet Underground song, and they were one of the most important bands, for me.

Our music over the years has been very cinematic. It's surprising we never really got into film soundtracks.

I always hate explaining away songs, because for me they mean something, and for other people, they'll mean something absolutely different.

People are People still gets played to death on '80s stations. It was our first big break in America. It's not exactly my favorite song.

As part of Depeche Mode, I don't think it's right for me to be using my own songs for a solo project. I'm not a very prolific songwriter, so I keep those for Depeche Mode.

I even have nephews who make music, my daughter makes music. I don't know what advice to give them these days. It's really a tough industry to break into.

If you took music out of my life, I don't know what I'd do. It's the one thing that I have a real passion for.

Kids today don't know that much about vinyl.

Technology is a bit of a double-edged sword. Used right, it's a wonderful tool, but unfortunately, it makes it easier for a lot of mediocre people to get really crappy ideas out.

When I write a song, I always start on acoustic guitar, because that's a good test of a song, when it's really open and bare. You can often mislead yourself if you start with computers and samples and programming because you can disguise a bad song.

It was so exciting to go to the record shop and buy a piece of vinyl and hold it, read the liner notes, look at the pictures. Even the smell of the vinyl.

Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.

Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense.

There is a contest old as Eden, which still goes on - the conflict between right and wrong, between error and truth. In this conflict every human being has a part.

To me, error analysis is the sweet spot for improvement.

This nation was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the principle - among others - that honest men may honestly disagree; that if they all say what they think, a majority of the people will be able to distinguish truth from error.

What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth.

On health care, virtually every political error that could be made was made.

Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed.

In all science, error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last.

Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed.

The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth.

Truth is immortal; error is mortal.

To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.

A small error in the former will produce an enormous error in the latter.

The most considerable difference I note among men is not in their readiness to fall into error, but in their readiness to acknowledge these inevitable lapses.

Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes error a fault, and truth discourtesy.

To the extent that '60s guys own things, yes... but I don't have the publishing, just like most '60s guys, and that was an error, you know... part ownership in publishing was the kind of era that started a little bit later, when real businessmen started to manage artists.